


1955

by ReduxReloaded



Category: OS-tan
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:42:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25869856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReduxReloaded/pseuds/ReduxReloaded
Collections: OS-tan





	1955

“Come on Simon, get back to work! We’re going to get nowhere if you don’t help me stock these shelves!”

“Sorry, I was just thinking about something.”

“What are you thinking about now? Girls?”

“No, not that, nowhere near that.”

“Then what?”

“...Have ever wondered what it's like to have a sibling? Maybe a younger sister?”

“Have you ever thought about helping me stock this shelf?” The bookshop was not that big of course, just a small one somewhere in New York with posters on the windows. There were racks of books on the outside for people to read but I am not sure who thought that was an innovative idea. Several coal-coloured metal attachments for the lights were jutting out just underneath the name of the bookshop to irradiate the books and the visitors.

“Excuse me? Do you have the book about the woman who records her thoughts?” Simon turned around to see a customer who needed help.

“What's the title of it and who wrote it? If you can give me any other details I can go check.” The customer just gave him a blank stare. “Is it fantasy or something else?”

“I don't know. It has a tape recorder on the cover.”

“I'm sorry, I need more detail to help you out.”

“How can you not know, it's so well-known! I'll just go to another shop instead.” This happened often even though Simon had a vast knowledge of books. Yes, he might know most of the books in the store, but he does not know every single book as everyone assumes, he does, Simon is not that type of a computer. By the time he and his co-worker had finished doing what they had to do it was 8 pm which meant work was done for the day, but Simon decided to stay behind to get some books before he went home. It wasn’t a long walk home because his house was just a few blocks away, but it was an average house Simon lived in and the snow had grown a few inches on the sidewalk, so it was slower to get home but he eventually got there.

"Excuse me, sir!" Simon looked up from the path and turned around to see a short boy wearing a dune coloured Peaky Blinders suit. They had short woodland coloured hair and their suit had sage and mahogany circles on it. The boy handed him a book that Simon had dropped without noticing and smiled at him. "You dropped this."

“Thank you.” He grinned at the boy before taking the book, unlocking his house door, going inside, and turning the lights on. It was not that small of a house, but it was large enough for him to work on his books but to his surprise, there was a torso on the floor... and arms and legs too! The head was connected to the torso. Simon did not know how this thing got inside his house nor did he recognize what it was, but it looked like some sort of ventriloquist puppet to him. "How did this get into my house?" He pondered, putting the books on a nearby table and approached the puppet-like figure to inspect it. It appeared to have shoulder-length light brown hair, orange eyes like him and was wearing round glasses, the puppet was also wearing a cream-coloured dress, a brown bonnet with holes punctured into it, a jacket the same colour as the bonnet, white socks, and slip-on shoes the same colour as the bonnet. Simon thought about if it could be a statue that you put together instead so he picked up the torso and right arm, trying to see if they can be put back together “I’ll have to see if this is anyone owns this...” He muttered, piecing all the pieces together and standing the puppet up on its feet.

If this was a puppet then there should be strings and a handle, right? Simon checked for that but instead, there was a wind-up mechanism on her back which he winded up. He glanced back at the puppet, but it was not doing anything after he winded it up, maybe it needed to be winded up more? Simon did that but nothing happened again, so he waved his hand in front of the puppet’s face and it blinked, covering its eyes from the bright light. “That’s somewhat odd... maybe it senses my actions?” Simon waved his hand in front of the puppet again, but it shook its head at him, still covering the eyes. “Hmm... do you have a name?” He asked the puppet, but it never replied. He thought for a moment and opened some blinds to let the setting sun's light in then walked back over to the puppet to move its hands away from its face. It noticed something sitting on a desk behind him and decided to walk over to it, completely ignoring him. Simon quietly observed the puppet and noticed it was interested in the computer on his desk.

“What’s this?” The puppet asked, pointing at the computer, and turning around to him.

“That’s my relay-based computer called Simon... which is also my name.”

“Simon..." The puppet pondered. "Do I have a name?” He had to think of an answer.

“No, but I can give you one."

“What will that be?”

“Uhm...” Simon’s thoughts went blank because he never had to name a puppet, but he memorized that on the manual to it on the floor read ‘GENIACS: Simple electric brain machines and how to make them.’ 

“I’ll call you Jeanie, Jeanie Berkeley.” He smiled at the puppet. “It sounds like GENIAC and Jeanie will be my sister.”

“Your sister?”

“Yes!” He grinned excitedly. Simon was eager to show her around, but she did not seem particularly curious about everything. Jeanie preferred the smaller stuff better. However, she was inquisitive in a clock that was attached to the wall. it was a 1950s Frisian Chair Clock that was painted and made of lead, bronze, brass, and wood but how could Simon have the money for such a thing? Knowing that was not crucial to her so she walked over to that. “So, do you like the clock, Jeanie?” Simon asked.

“It’s a cool clock! ...But I am short to see all of it” She grimaces, still eyeing the clock.

“Hmm...” Simon thought for a moment before walking up behind her. “I could pick you up so you can see it.”

“Really?” Jeanie asked.

“Yes, but I’d rather cook the food first.”

“What kind of food?”

“Umm... Decent food? I’m not a chef but I can cook at least.” Simon said back to her nervously.

“Can I help you?”

“I guess, just follow me.” Both Simon and Jeanie left the living room and went to the kitchen which honestly reeked of the 1950s because of the sweet, pastel-coloured everything but they were not all like that. Simon instructed Jeanie to sit down at the table so he could get one of his cookbooks before returning to the table to sit with her. They discussed some stuff in the book that he could cook.

“That looks good!” She pointed at a page that had casseroles on it.

“...I don’t think I have the stuff for that.”

"Are you sure?" He nodded at her, frowning a little. Jeanie laughed a bit at his expression before turning her attention back to the book to see if there were any other things, he could make for them. The two of them spent about an hour looking through everything before deciding on something to make. Jeanie had never made anything before, but she was confident enough in her abilities that Simon should not need to worry about her messing up. 

"Do you have macaroni noodles?" She asked him before getting up from her seat.

"Macaroni noodles? What are you going to make with those, and shouldn't I be the one cooking?" 

"A surprise." She said, shrugging slightly before walking over to a cupboard to find some.

"Erm... I don't think you should be cooking."

"Why not?" She asked, turning to face him. 

"Because..." He starts but pauses, looking for the words that will not sound like some old man trying to scare her. "You're quite short to reach things."

"I can reach the top shelf." She says, standing on her tiptoes to try and prove her point but fails miserably. Simon walked over to Jeanie and give her a chair to use so she can reach the stuff more easily and Jeanie thanked him before using the chair he gave her to reach things on the highest shelf in the cupboard without having to stand on her tip-toes anymore. After about five minutes she had gathered everything she needed and turned around to face him. "I'm ready when you are." Simon looked up from the cookbook on the table with a smile before nodding at her and walking over to her. Jeanie took the book from him.

"Alright then, let's do this." She handed him 3 large eggs and pointed over to a small pot which he got and walked back to her. 

"You're going to need to light the stovetop first." Simon did as tell he was told then put the three eggs into the pot and filled it with water before putting the pot on the gas cooktop. 

"I know how to cook, Jeanie." He said calmly but firmly as he waited for them to boil. Jeanie looked up at him with an expression that seemed to say "Really?" The heat was lowered to a simmer and the pasta cooked for 10 minutes. Simon noticed Jeanie had gotten a bowl and was filling it up with icy water and she smiled at him when she had noticed he was looking at her. 

"The recipe said it needed ice water to cool them down, before peeling them then chopping them up!" 10 minutes finally passed and Simon removed the eggs from the boiling water and into the ice water. "...And now you need another pot."

"Another one?"

"Yes." He sighed and grabbed a larger pot and filled it with 4 quarts of water, just like the recipe had said and put in a tablespoon of salt for that to boil as well. Jeanie handed him the packet of macaroni to chuck in the pot until it was just tender, which should have been around 6 to 8 minutes.

"Drain and cool it when it is done!" Jeanie cheered and that made Simon laugh.

"I don't think you need to cheer me on." 

"You need the motivation though!" He laughed again at her and drained the pasta. 

"What's next, Jeanie?"

"You need another large bowl to whisk together the mayonnaise, vinegar and mustard plus salt and pepper until it is smooth, then stir in the vegetables."

"What vegetables?"

"Finely diced celery, finely diced red and green bell peppers, finely diced sweet pickles and finely diced onion!" Simon just stared at her as she made a circular motion with her hands.

"Oh... Um... Y-Yeah!" He said finally. Simon instructed her to get the chopping board, a knife (which he told her to be careful with) and the vegetables she had listed. Jeanie ran over to the fridge and looked for mayonnaise and mustard which was there and ran back over to put those on the benchtop. She then went over the cupboard and searched there for vinegar and salt and grabbed those to bring them back to where everything else was, but he got a bit nervous when noticing that she was about to start chopping the vegetables up. She was not going fast with it but quite slowly and paying attention to not hurt herself. "You want me to chop these for you?" Simon asked, a bit worried about how this was going. Jeanie told him that she just needed some practice and he gave her a small smile. 8 minutes had finally passed, and the pasta had cooled to room temperature and Jeanie moved out of the way so Simon could put the mayonnaise, vinegar and mustard into a bowl... but something was missing.

"We need pepper!" He said pointing at the cupboard. She ran over to the cupboard to grab the pepper and brought it back to him. He put some salt, pepper, and the chopped vegetables into the bowl to blend them. "Jeanie, you can look around while I finish this if you want."

"Oh! O-Okay!" She said happily and took a step back, looking around at all the ingredients that were there. She did not touch anything though as she would burn herself. While Simon continued to blend the ingredients, Jeanie explored the house more. It was not an excessively big one, but it had everything you would need. The kitchen on the right corner, a living room on the left and a set of stairs leading up to the second floor. The stairs led to two bedrooms, a bathroom and a small hallway with two more doors, one is locked and the other just being a wardrobe, so she walked into one of the bedrooms. The room was bare with just a bed, a wardrobe, a dresser, a bookshelf with barely any books in it and a desk. The walls were a light brown colour and the window had a pleasant view of trees. What caught her attention though was a jukebox that had been taken apart to show the internals of it. She wondered if it would work again and got closer to see if any of the old songs were in it.

"There you are," Simon said walking into the room. Jeanie quickly turned her attention to him. "The pasta is ready." She followed him downstairs and sat down at the table while he served her some pasta. She began to eat it and found that it was surprisingly good. Not the best she had ever tasted, but it was good enough for her. 

"I saw the jukebox and it reminded me of something.” She said as she ate.

“The jukebox huh? What did you think of it?” He asked.

“It was broken.”

“I found it on the side of the road one day and took it for myself so I could take it apart.”

Jeanie took a drink of some water. "How come it was on the side of the road?"  
"I'm not sure, I think someone wanted to get rid of it.” 

"Really?"

"Yeah, it was rusted down and dirty inside too, but I cleaned it up. Did you want some more pasta?"

"Yes, please." He began to serve her more, but this time Jeanie ate slower as she looked at him in curiosity. "Why did you want to take the jukebox apart?"

Simon put down the bowl of pasta and scratched his head. "I wanted to see how it worked and if I could make it play music."

"Did you make it play music?”

"Not really, but it was still fun to take it apart and see all the pieces."

"Do you think you could make it work?"

He thought for a moment. "I'm not sure, but it's not impossible." She stared at him for a moment before leaning to grab his hair. Although Jeanie could not sense anything, she touched she was able to imagine how it felt. "Will you let go of my hair?" He asked her. She complied and let go of his hair. He smiled at her as he stood up from the table. “Thank you, I appreciate it."

"You're welcome." She replied and went back to eating. When she finished eating, she turned to Simon who was staring at her. “You’re not finished?”

"No, I'm finished."

"Are you sure? You didn't eat much."

"I'm fine.” Simon stood up and took both of their bowls to wash them. Jeanie left the dining room and looked around the living room as Simon washed the two bowls. She noticed a small picture frame next to the computer on the desk in the living room. She observed it closely and saw a young boy wearing an early 19th-century era outfit, but Jeanie did not know they were wearing something of the past. People were standing next to him, but she could tell the boy in the picture did not seem happy, the smile looked forced. There was a larger picture frame hanging on a wall which had a woman dressed in an elaborate Byzantine-style outfit. 

“Simon, who is this little boy?” 

“Little boy? What do you mean?”

“There’s a picture of a little boy wearing a fancy outfit.” 

“Oh, that...” He walked over to her and picked up the photo frame, handing it to her. "That was me when I was younger."

"I didn't know you had a family. Are they dead?"

He paused for a moment and looked down. "Both of my parents have passed on."

"Do you have another mom or dad?"

"That’s... not how it works, Jeanie.”

"How else does it work?"

Simon thought for a moment. "Um... you'll find out when you’re older."

"But how will I know when I'm older?"

He exhaled. "You'll just know." Jeanie stared at him with a look of confusion. She wanted to ask more questions, but he was already turning his attention back to the picture frame. Jeanie continued to look at the photo of Simon as a child. She could see the resemblance, but also something else. Something sadder.

"How did they die?" She asked quietly.

He did not answer right away and changed the subject back to about when he was younger. "I remember having to wear that uncomfortable outfit, it wasn't nice."

"What was it like?"

He frowned. Jeanie was able to sense his discomfort and decided to change the subject again. "Who is this?" She asked, pointing to the larger photo hanging on the wall.

"That's Marcie Aiken, or Harvard Mark I-tan."

"Why is she dressed like that?"

He looked at the photo closer. "Her human worshippers dressed her like that, but she didn’t like it. She’d prefer to wear contemporary clothing or her uniform.”

Jeanie looked at the photo of the young woman with interest. "What's a worshipper?"

"Someone who believes in her."

"Do you believe in her?"

"Yes, because I worked with her for some time."

Jeanie smiled. “Did you love her?"

“N-No, not at all...” She could tell he was lying because he was getting flustered.

“Can we go and visit her?”

“Maybe one day.”

She looked at the photo a little longer before turning to face Simon. "I think she is pretty."

"I agree, she is- huh? Are you tired?” He asked after noticing she was rubbing her eyes.

"A little. Do you have any books or anything that might help me sleep?"

"Um... let me see what I can find." He walked over to his bookcase and began searching through his books. "I think I have something that will help you sleep."

"What is it?" He pulled out a small, black book. The title on the spine read: The Space Child's Mother Goose. "What's that?" Jeanie asked.

"It's a book that should help you sleep.”

"Can you read it for me?"

"Sure, why not?" He began walking upstairs with the book and she tagged along with him. Simon spent most of his night reading to her various kinds of poetry and when she finally fell asleep, he left her room and shut the door behind him. Walking back downstairs Simon had a thought hit. Where did she come from? What exactly was she? Did he want a sister that much that he decided to at once look past the strange occurrence of Jeanie’s arrival? Simon did not want to think too much about it, so he laid on the couch and fell asleep.  
———————————————————  
Jeanie was woken up in the morning by a noise. She groggily opened her eyes and saw Simon fumbling with his keys.

"Hey." He greeted when he saw her starting to sit up on her bed.

"What time is it?" She yawned.

"8:30, did you sleep well?" She nodded at him. “I made you some breakfast so you should come head downstairs to eat it before it gets cold.”

"Okay." Jeanie quickly got up and followed him downstairs to the dining room. She saw he had already set a place for her at the table.

"You sit here, you’re family now. I made you some bacon, eggs, and toast.” He said, placing the food in front of her.

"Wow, you went all out for me." She said, sitting down and starting to eat. Simon smiled at her comment, not expecting her to be so accepting of his cooking.

"I'm glad you like it.” The two spent the rest of the morning eating, talking, and laughing until they finally realized how late it was. "Oh no, I have to get to work now!"


End file.
